Nick Saban's 4 Essentials for Improvement

Before he shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement last week, Alabama Coach Nick Saban offered candid advice to a young athlete about achieving a dream.

Saban, a seven-time National Champion, didn’t just throw out the common cliches of “hard work” or “you can be whatever you want to be,” though.  

He identified four essentials for bringing about a goal — and they’re as relevant to coaches, executives and teachers as they are to the young athlete he was advising.

1. Identify the dream 

“What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do?”, Saban asked.   

Sounds basic enough, but lots of times, we throw out visions like “Win at a high level” or “Increase profits in first quarter.” 

When our goals aren’t specific in nature, though, we frequently don’t cultivate actionable strategies to achieve anything worthwhile. Sustained success like Saban’s first requires succinctly articulating what it is that we hope to accomplish.  

2. Define what it takes to do it

Once again, this should be laid out in detail. What are the actionable steps we must take each day to work toward our dream? Then, how will we gauge whether we’re actually making progress?

The necessary relevant habits must be identified and cultivated early on.  

3. Are we willing to actually do it?

Leadership is full of people with visions. But fewer among us actually have the maturity and commitment levels over an extended period of time to bring their goals about. 

We may have to wake up earlier than we feel like. We may have to sacrifice time with friends or a significant other. We may have to turn down an appealing and convenient alternative to instead take action and put in the work.

Saban recognized not many want to actually make the necessary sacrifices.

4. Do you have the discipline to do it every day, even if you don’t feel like it?

We all have sluggish days, ones in which it feels nearly impossible to make progress on a task. But it’s these arduous times that are frequently the most important for us if we want to achieve something worthwhile. 

It’s easy to be productive when we’re operating on eight hours of sleep and everything is going well in life. It’s far more challenging when we’re exhausted, stressed and making seemingly little progress.   

“It’s not just going to come easy,” Saban said. ”You’re probably going to have to overcome a lot of adversity to be able to persevere and sustain it to get where you want to go.”

“People who can do that can reach their full potential,” he added.

“If you choose to make that kind of commitment to it, you can do the same thing.”

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